More Billie Holiday on Columbia was on the menu this morning. The box
set contains so many songs that you never hear these days and that in
itself is refreshing. And of course there are plenty of old
favourites - “Pennies from Heaven” and “I Can’t Give You
Anything But Love” (also check out Pops’ version from the early
30s too - amazing phrasing). “This Year’s Kisses” was on a
disc I had pretty early on as I was getting into jazz. Still a
favourite. Irving Fazola’s clarinet tone on the session from
September 1936 (“A Fine Romance” etc) popped out at me this
morning. What was it with New Orleans and clarinetists? Is it the
whole opera and the blues thing? Sidney Bechet, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy
Noone, Edmond Hall, Barney Bigard, George Lewis.... not a bad run
Yesterday I
mentioned how the Billie Holiday sessions don’t feel like all-star
outings. Well a bunch of the Dizzy Gillespie albums I have are along
the lines of “Dizzy meets” type albums. And those jam-type
sessions can fall into the trap of spectacle rather than music making
(like heaps of those videos of all-star jams at festivals during the
70s). Duets is blowin’ session Diz with his rhythm section (Ray and
Tommy Bryant and Charlie Persip) along with Sonny Rollins for two
blues and two Sonny Stitt for two afro-cuban numbers. I think I would
have preferred it the other way around. Or perhaps that’s just me
favouring Rollins over Stitt. The upside with Sonny Side Up.... you
get to hear both on all the tunes. And I’ll get to that one soon
enough.
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